Black Canyon of the Gunnison

After a few freezing nights camping, we stayed in nearby Montrose, Colorado and day tripped into Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park for a couple of days. We spent the mornings at a nearby cafe and the evenings cooking inside for the first time in ages (in our motel kitchenette)!

The majority of our time in the park was spent on and around the rim, looking down into the canyon from above. We decided to just focus on the South Rim because the North Rim required driving way too far for us.

We did a relatively flat rim hike loop which gets you into pretty much all the different areas of the park (except the canyon floor). We saw a ton of chipmunks and a lone mule deer buck!
 While up on the rim, we spotted some kayakers down on the river going through the rapids. It took the first explorers years to raft successfully through this part of the canyon, I’d be terrified attempting it.
 There are a bunch of rim overlooks along the scenic drive, but several of them offer similar views. The painted wall overlook was pretty spectacular.Since we had two full days in the park, we decided to spend one of them hiking down into the canyon. The Gunnison Route is supposedly the ‘easiest’ route down to the river, but it was still the most technical hike we’ve done. You descend seemingly straight down, sometimes with the help of a chain, almost 2,000 ft in only one mile of trail. It took us 3 hours to go down and up a total of about 2 miles. Our favorite part was getting to spend time by the Gunnison River – it was gorgeous down there!

We walked along the river bank for a while, staring up at the huge cliff walls, marveling at the fast-moving water, watching fish jump and generally in awe of the beautiful landscape! The boxelders and other deciduous trees were all a brilliant yellow and they really glowed in the afternoon light. We set up our hammock by the river and spent an hour or two relaxing, eating lunch and exploring. We even saw a bald eagle flying overhead!

Highlights of Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP

• Spending time down in the canyon by the Gunnison River
• Painted Wall Overlook

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